成人快播

For Immediate Release

Contact:

Cassy McKee

Executive Director, 成人快播 Seattle

(206) 335-6699 |聽cassy.charyn@readingpartners.org

(Seattle, WA) April 21, 2020

, an early literacy nonprofit dedicated to mobilizing community volunteers to tutor students in under-resourced schools, today announces its partnership with聽聽to provide content-rich, literacy focused text messages to parents and caregivers to help support young students. The聽聽was quickly expanded in response to widespread COVID-19 school closures and is now a free resource for all students and families across the country (texting and data rates may apply), whether they are part of the 成人快播 program or not.

The Bright By Text program, available in both English and Spanish, was strategically chosen by 成人快播 due to its text messaging capability as the digital divide in America persists in economically disadvantaged American households. The platform will send two messages a week providing literacy tips, facts, and activities to parents and caregivers of five- to eight-year-olds, with content created from 成人快播 best practices and聽. In addition to the two 成人快播 messages, parents will receive information from Bright by Text about STEM, caregiver resilience, and more.

According to聽, more than four-in-ten Americans don鈥檛 have home broadband services (44 percent) nor a traditional computer (46 percent). By comparison, each of these technologies are nearly ubiquitous among adults in households earning $100,000 or more a year.

鈥淲hile our traditional model mobilizes community volunteers to tutor students in schools, in the face of COVID-19, we were able to quickly pivot with the Bright By Text partnership to remain a daily force in helping students gain the critical early literacy skills they need to succeed in school and beyond,鈥� says Karine Apollon, CEO, 成人快播. 鈥淚n the midst of this pandemic, our mission to serve students in lower-income areas is more relevant than ever as they are disproportionately affected by societal shocks. With this texting platform, we are still able to support students whether they can afford internet services or not.鈥�

Research shows that students who are not reading at grade level by fourth grade are four times less likely to graduate on time. Additionally, 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores revealed that only 35 percent of US fourth graders are reading at grade level鈥攁nd only 21 percent of economically disadvantaged fourth graders. Today, it is estimated that 32 million adults in the U.S. cannot read. Addressing the literacy crisis in the early elementary years can help end the destructive trends of cyclical poverty and racial inequality.

Families and caregivers across the nation are invited to sign up today by texting the word READ to 274448 or by聽. The sign-up process takes less than a minute.

In addition to the Bright By Text partnership, 成人快播 is deploying a number of other resources to support students who are out of school due to the COVID-19 public health emergency:

• • Family Literacy Resources聽– 成人快播 has created a range of detailed,听聽for families in English and Spanish.
  • Live Virtual Read Alouds聽– 成人快播 teams will use online spaces, like Zoom, to safely facilitate live read alouds available to 成人快播 students.
  • Anytime Read Aloud Videos聽– 成人快播 AmeriCorps members will record virtual read aloud videos featuring high-quality diverse texts. 成人快播 families and students will be able to access virtual read aloud links at any time.
  • Literacy Skill Videos聽– 成人快播 AmeriCorps members will record short skill-building videos across grade levels using research-based curriculum materials. The videos will show caregivers simple and effective activities they can do at home to help students practice a range of literacy skills while schools remain closed.
  • Digital Library聽– 成人快播 will be partnering with Age of Learning to offer聽, an advanced digital library and literacy platform for children through sixth grade that provides access to thousands of high-quality books in English, Spanish and 鈥榦ffline鈥� mode.
  • Mailed Personalized Book Packages– 成人快播 is mailing personalized book packages to our Seattle students, which will include a level-appropriate book and literacy games for the student to play at home. Third Place Books is supporting this effort by running a聽聽to help benefit 成人快播 students.

成人快播 seeks to secure necessary funding to keep the organization whole and responsive to the changing needs of the students and communities it serves. 成人快播 Seattle鈥檚 annual luncheon was cancelled due to COVID-19, and they have transformed the traditional luncheon into an online fundraising聽, which culminates on April 30th, the original date of the luncheon. The best way to create quality academic opportunities for students during this challenging time is to make a contribution directly on 成人快播鈥櫬燭hose interested in making a major contribution, are encouraged to contact聽donate@readingpartners.org.聽Each gift will help ensure critical literacy resources reach students, whether in their classrooms or homes.

Example of content through the family texting program

Link to聽聽showing a screen shot of the family texting program sign-up process in action

• • 0:00 – 0:07 – Text the word READ to 274448 from any mobile device
  • 0:07 – 0:16 – Bright by Text will send welcome messaging and ask for subscriber to submit a child’s birthdate
  • 0:15 – 0:25 – Submit and confirm the child’s date of birth
  • 0:24 – 0:33 – Submit and confirm zip code
  • It’s as simple as that!

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  About 成人快播
  For more than聽, 成人快播 has empowered students to succeed in reading and in life by engaging community volunteers to provide one-on-one tutoring. Since its founding, the national nonprofit organization has mobilized more than 60,000 community volunteers to provide聽, individualized literacy tutoring to nearly 60,000 elementary school students in over 400 under-resourced schools across ten states and the District of Columbia. Visit聽to learn more about our聽, or connect with us on聽,听,, and聽.

  About Bright by Text

  Bright by Text helps parents and caregivers make the most out of time at home with their children by illustrating fun and easy activities, providing positive parenting tips and resources, and even video content to guide a child鈥檚 development. The program is proven to build nurturing caregiver-child relationships, and positively impact a child鈥檚 healthy development and school readiness. Innovative services like Bright by Text will help provide equitable solutions to early education while schools remain closed.